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ice : but as no striae were observed, we can hardly ascribe them to 

 the action of glaciers, as the forms may be due to the effects of dis- 

 integration on the concentric structure upon the large scale, so often 

 seen in granite. The bed of the stream, as we pass up, is strewed 

 with many loose rounded masses of pitchstone and trap, indicating 

 the existence of dikes or beds of these rocks among the lofty precipices 

 on the west. Mounting this steep brow, to reach the corrie under the 

 north front of Ben-Grhnuis, we meet with a dike of spheroidal trap in 

 the bed of one of the streams ; it is about seven feet wide, and 

 ranges 35 W. of N. The rounded masses of granite here may 

 have received their forms from the long continued action of water 

 trickling over them, and torrents occasionally sweeping along gravel 

 and large stones. Arrived at this corrie, we are in the midst of a 

 scene wild, lonely, and picturesque. The bare and rugged precipices 

 of Ben-Grhnuis rise high into middle air on the south, with their 

 immense sheets and rhombic masses of granite, from six to twelve 

 feet in the side, piled up, block on block, in massive courses, like the 

 huge rough masonry of giants. The topmost row, broken by clefts 

 and deep gashes, due to irregular disintegration, shows grandly in its 

 perfect definition against the clear sky. Along the front, which 

 sweeps round to form one side of the corrie, there stand out here and 

 there enormous pillars of the rock, detached from the cliff behind, 

 resting on a basis which is rapidly giving way under the active 

 agents of waste in this changeful climate, and threatening a speedy 

 descent into the valley of the Grarbh-Alt. The rugged outlines of 

 the Groatfell group bound our view on the east, the distant landscape 

 being shut out by the intervening ridges ; and the eye from this 

 point does not take in a single human dwelling, or other sign of the 

 abode of man. No sound reaches the ear but that of the crystal 

 rills trickling from the clefts of the granite, the hum of insects on 

 the wing, or the twitter of the solitary stone-chat, as it flits from 

 rock to rock. The solitude is complete, the silence solemn and 

 impressive. Our perfect isolation amid such a scene, the vast 

 dimensions of the objects around us, and their expression of power, 

 are true elements of the sublime, and awaken the most pleasing and 

 elevating emotions. There is a delightful consciousness of a new 

 activity in the fancy, and an increased buoyancy and intensity in 

 the feelings. To the geologist there is another source of the sub- 

 lime in contemplating the effects of the mighty forces which have 

 rent the crust of the earth, raised these mountain masses from the 

 fiery depths beneath, and scooped the glens and comes out of the 

 solid rock. 



